The United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) opposes the boycott of the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing.

The American body reaffirmed its position on Wednesday, March 10, following calls to American athletes not to participate in the event because of China's human rights record.

What: Boycott the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, China.



Why: the Uyghur Muslim genocide pic.twitter.com/2i3mfiRXXe

- Khaled Beydoun (@KhaledBeydoun) March 10, 2021

"While we would never want to minimize what is happening from a human rights perspective in China, we do not support a boycott of athletes," said USOPC President Susanne Lyons.

"These boycotts only hurt the athletes"

According to the president of the USOPC, the boycotts are ineffective and unfairly penalize the athletes who have prepared for the Games, citing the case of the American boycott of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.

"We believe that such boycotts have not been effective in the past, especially in 1980 (...) These boycotts only hurt the athletes who have trained their entire lives to have the opportunity to represent their country" , she recalled.

"We believe this is an issue that should be addressed government to government with China," said the one who is also a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Marketing Commission.

The next Winter Games are due to start on February 4, 2022, just six months after the Tokyo Summer Olympics, which were postponed for a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

China is under global scrutiny over a range of issues, including the massive internment of Muslim Uighurs in the western Xinjiang region, which the United States says amounts to genocide.

American elected officials tabled a draft resolution in the Senate at the beginning of February asking the IOC to withdraw the organization of the 2022 Winter Olympics from China, because of "its flagrant violations of human rights".

About thirty elected officials and associations from Canada launched a similar appeal.

With AFP

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